Monthly Archives: December 2021

Current Affairs, Love & Relationships, Memories & History, Religion & Spirit, Science & Health

How grief and loss affect your brain, and why it takes time to adapt : Shots – Health News : NPR

By Berly McCoy, December 20, 20212:55 PM ET

Grief is tied to all sorts of different brain functions, says researcher and author Mary-Frances O’Connor. That can range from being able to recall memories to taking the perspective of another person, to even things like regulating our heart rate and the experience of pain and suffering.
Adam Lister/Getty Images

Holidays are never quite the same after someone we love dies.

Even small aspects of a birthday or a Christmas celebration — an empty seat at the dinner table, one less gift to buy or make — can serve as jarring reminders of how our lives have been forever changed.

Although these realizations are hard to face, clinical psychologist Mary-Frances O’Connor says we shouldn’t avoid them or try to hide our feelings. “Grief is a universal experience,” she notes, “and when we can connect, it is better.”

O’Connor, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, studies what happens in our brains when we experience grief.

She says grieving is a form of learning — one that teaches us how to be in the world without someone we love in it. “The background is running all the time for people who are grieving, thinking about new habits and how they interact now.”

Source: How grief and loss affect your brain, and why it takes time to adapt : Shots – Health News : NPR

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Pleasures

NYC Libraries Release Their Top Checkouts Of 2021 – Gothamist

by Jen Carlson, Dec 21, 10:02 AM

Jonathan Blanc / NYPL

The New York City library systems are home to millions of (print and digital) books, some more popular than others, and some titles more popular in certain boroughs.

At the end of every year, the Brooklyn, Queens, and New York Public Library systems (the latter covers Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx) release their most checked-out books of the year, giving New Yorkers an idea of what their neighbors have been reading.

“It’s interesting that so many of the top titles were featured as part of book clubs — the WNYC book club and others — showing that New Yorkers are certainly craving a sense of togetherness through reading following a period of unprecedented isolation,” said Lynn Lobash, NYPL’s Assistant Director of Reader Services.

Check out the full lists below, with appearances from Danielle Steel, Barack Obama, and some kid named Harry Potter.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item...

Source: NYC Libraries Release Their Top Checkouts Of 2021 – Gothamist

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Love & Relationships, Memories & History, Religion & Spirit

“A Christmas Memory,” Truman Capote’s Classic, Handwritten at the Library | Library of Congress Blog

Published December 20, 2021 by Neely Tucker

The cover of “A Christmas Memory,” with young Truman Capote standing next to his beloved cousin “Sook,” Nanny Rumbley Faulk. 

“A Christmas Memory,” Truman Capote’s story about his Alabama childhood with an eccentric elderly cousin, has been one of the nation’s most beloved tales in the holiday canon for more than half a century.

First published in Mademoiselle magazine in the winter of 1956, it starts this way: “Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town.”

His cousin, Nanny Rumbley Faulk, soon arises to exclaim, with her sherry-colored eyes, her breath smoking the windowpane, “Oh my! It’s fruitcake weather!”

They were two misfits in a no-nonsense Southern household in the 1920s and ’30s. He called her “Sook.” She called him “Buddy.” They were cheerful co-conspirators at the opposite end of their lives; each delicate, sensitive and adoring of one other.

Source: “A Christmas Memory,” Truman Capote’s Classic, Handwritten at the Library | Library of Congress Blog

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Memories & History

Literary ‘treasure trove’ including Brontë and Austen handwritten works saved from auction | The Independent

The Honresfield Library, hidden for almost a century, will be divided up among different institutions for the British public to see

By Chiara Giordano, posted 12/06/2021

Literary works by Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns have been saved from auction
(Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Friends of the National Libraries)

A “treasure trove” of rare literary works by the likes of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters has been saved for the British public by the nation’s wealthiest man. The Honresfield Library, hidden for almost a century, was at risk of being broken up and sold on the open market. But the collection will now safely remain permanently in the UK public domain after the Friends of the National Libraries (FNL) raised the £15 million needed to acquire it.

Continue reading Literary ‘treasure trove’ including Brontë and Austen handwritten works saved from auction | The Independent →
Current Affairs, Food & Drink, Memories & History, Pleasures, Travel

Christmas in New York: 15 Festive Things To Do in NYC | Condé Nast Traveler

Our editors’ favorite holiday activities in the city they call home.

By Alex Erdekian, December 7, 2020

Getty, from article screenshot

We’re all looking for silver linings these days—and we’ve got one for you.

This Christmas season in New York City is sort of peaceful. There are fewer tourists crowding Midtown sidewalks, no social pressure to attend every holiday happy hour, and, more importantly, no Santa Con!

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is that NYC in December holds the power to grow the hearts of the Grinchiest of us.

Even this year, there is more than a little magic to be found. To help you find the best of it, our editors who call the city home share their favorite Christmastime traditions—nostalgic standbys you’ll recognize from the scenes of Elf, seasonal restaurant rituals, and neighborhood celebrations that put them in the holiday spirit.

Andrew F Kazmierski/Getty ..ice skating at Bryant Park…

Source: Christmas in New York: 15 Festive Things To Do in NYC | Condé Nast Traveler

Arts & Humanities, Current Affairs, Film & Movies, Libraries

“Return of the Jedi,” Mark Hamill and the 2021 National Film Registry | Library of Congress Blog

December 14, 2021 by Neely Tucker

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in a scene from “Return of the Jedi.” Photo: Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Company.

Video of announcement: https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-10132/

The National Film Registry’s 2021 class is the most diverse in the program’s 33-year history, including blockbusters such as “Return of the Jedi,” “Selena” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” but also the ’70s midnight-movie favorite “Pink Flamingos” and a 1926 film featuring Black pilots in the daring new world of aviation, “The Flying Ace.”

The 2021 selections, announced today, include movies dating back nearly 120 years and represent the work of Hollywood studios, independent filmmakers, documentarians, women directors, filmmakers of color, students and the silent era.

Most pointedly, the inductees also include a trio of documentaries that addressed murderous violence against Blacks, Asians and Latinos, respectively, in “The Murder of Fred Hampton,” Who Killed Vincent Chin?” and “Requiem-29.”

Source: “Return of the Jedi,” Mark Hamill and the 2021 National Film Registry | Library of Congress Blog